I Never Saw It Coming (A Wolf 359 AU)
by rejuit
Summary: Doug Eiffel is a single dad, doing his best to enjoy the normal life he leads with his daughter. His life is thrown for a loop, however, when he meets a girl named Hera... And somehow keeps running into her. Doug might just learn that taking a risk, and spilling some Chinese food, might be the best thing he's ever done. Just a self-indulgent Eiffel/Hera AU fanfic.
1. Everything Changes

It had been a normal day. Just the everyday routine. That was when he'd met her, and then everything was far, far from normal.

That was how these things normally went, right? In all the stories and all the movies, it always started with an average day. An average person. And then something extraordinary would happen, some stroke of fate that would bring the most incredible person into the average one's life. And they'd proceed to turn everything upside down, but in the absolute best way.

Maybe Doug Eiffel just watched too much TV, but that was kind of how it felt. If the thought of it wasn't so absolutely unromantic, he would have started humming the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air theme song. But for once, he'd been left speechless.

It had been the craziest of chance encounters, but Doug seemed to be the king of crazy anymore. He'd been walking out of the local Chinese restaurant, carrying a couple of bags of carry out. He tried not to spend too much money on takeout food- no wait, that was an absolute lie. If there was anything that Doug spent his money on, it was takeout. Besides, he and Anne had decided a while back that there wasn't too much he could manage to cook well, so it was probably best to buy food from a restaurant instead. In his defense, he'd never been taught how to cook, and college had taught him to settle for ramen and pizza. And now here he was, a single dad with a crappy-paying job as a radio DJ. So, needless to say, the tight college budget had not disappeared completely.

In any case, he'd picked up dinner for he and Anne and was walking out of the restaurant when he spotted her. The most beautiful woman he'd ever seen. At least, as far as he could recollect. There was just something about the way she carried herself, the aura she emitted…

And then Doug tripped over a crack in the sidewalk, like the complete idiot he was.

Sprawled out on the concrete, face landing in a bit of spilled lo mein, he muttered a weak, "Owww…" and letting himself sit in his soy sauce-flavored shame a moment as he tried to recollect himself. This was… not surprising, all things considered. Just his luck. Anne would probably get a good laugh out of this when he told her. One more embarrassing story to add to his collection, he supposed. Finally deciding after a moment that he couldn't just die there on the sidewalk, he started to push himself into a sitting position when he heard a voice right above him. Doug would later describe this voice as the sweet, dulcet tones of an angel, although its owner would insist that he was being ridiculously over-dramatic about it.

"Are you okay?" Boy, it wasn't just the voice that was lovely. As he looked up to meet her gaze, he saw the clearest blue eyes he'd ever witnessed. It was the woman he'd noticed only a moment ago, hovering over him with a worried expression. Her long, black hair was starting to slowly slide off of her shoulder as she leaned down, and her brow was furrowed in concern. Had… Had Doug died from faceplanting on the concrete?

"H-hey!" The slight edge to her tone brought him back to reality. Nope, he was very much alive and still very much looking like an idiot. "I said, are you ok-kay?"

"I…" His words stuck in his throat. "Pretty… Uh, yeah, I think I'm pretty alright, I… I just…" The full reality of the situation hitting him like a train, Doug scrambled to his feet, taking stock of the damage. His hands seemed a bit scraped up and his face hurt some, but that was about the extent to which he'd actually been hurt. The food on the other hand… Well, what wasn't on his shirt was strewn across the sidewalk. He grimaced. Great. There went dinner… and his favorite Star Wars T-shirt. Yeesh, this was turning out ridiculously awful.

"Here…" The woman knelt down, gathering up the boxes and plastic bag, and Doug quickly joined her, attempting to scrape what food he could off of the ground so that no one else would step in it. He heard her heels click softly as she walked over to a nearby trash can to throw it all away, with Doug once again in tow.

"Thanks…" he mumbled sheepishly. "Sorry you had to see that… I promise I'm not always enemies with the sidewalk, but he really had it coming this time."

She raised her eyebrows. "Oh, I'm sure. But you really should have c-considered the possibility of losing. After all, rock doesn't just, just beat scissors… It also beats soft, delicate human fl-flesh."

What… He couldn't tell if she was being completely serious or joking. He wasn't sure he wanted to know the answer, either. Face red, he went to run a hand through his hair, realized it was covered in food and a little blood, and thought better of it. Instead he let his hand drop awkwardly down to his side, pressing his lips into a thin line as he wondered what to say. Before he even had a chance, though, she was moving past him, not even so much as looking back at the sorry mess he was.

 _Nice, Doug. Real nice. You blew it again._

At least that was what he thought, until she turned around and caught him off guard with her question. "What did you order?"

"Um…" Doug blinked. "Just… Just some lo mein? And sweet and sour chicken?" Why was he answering that like a question? That _was_ what it had been.

"Got it. Wait here a s-sec." And just like that, she was gone. And almost just as quickly, it seemed, she returned, a fresh plastic bag in her hands, very clearly full of takeout boxes. "Here." She held it out towards him, a soft expression on her face. "No p-point in coming and walking away em-empty-handed."

Doug looked incredulously at the bag now in his hands, then to the woman, then back and forth one more time. "You… Really? Are you serious?"

She shrugged, a smile tugging at her lips. "Yeah, why not. People aren't n-nice enough to each other anymore; might as well show a bit of kindness. Besides, you looked like you were having one of _those_ days, and I can really s-sympathize with that tod-day." Shrugging again, she brushed a strand of hair behind her ear and moved to leave. "Anyway… I hope you have a better day."

And there she was. Leaving again. He hadn't even asked- Oh shoot! He hadn't even asked her what her name was! Boy did Doug feel dumb today.

"Wait!" He called after her. "I'm Doug, Doug Eiffel! What's your name?" What was this, a fairytale? He sounded like the prince calling desperately after Cinderella.

Against all likelihood, she looked over her shoulder, flashed him a grin, and he could have sworn he saw a mischievous sparkle in her eyes. "I'm Hera Hephaestus. It was nice to m-meet you, Eiffel."


	2. TV Trays and Little Talks

"I'm going to eat without you!" A voice carried across the small apartment, making its way down the hall and into the bathroom, waking Doug from his stupor. He'd been staring at the mirror for… He checked his phone. Fifteen minutes? Yeesh, no wonder Anne was getting impatient.

Lightly touching the scrapes on his face that he'd cleaned up, he wondered for the fifth time since coming home what kind of dreamscape he'd just experienced. A chance encounter… It had probably meant nothing to Ms. Hephaestus herself. Just another good deed to make her feel all warm and fuzzy. But… something about it had stuck with him. Maybe it was because she hadn't laughed at him, or just that she'd taken the time to help him out.

With a sigh, he stuffed his stained clothes into the mesh hamper behind him. Whatever it had meant to him, it didn't matter much. He'd probably never see her again anyway.

Opening the door with a click and shuffling into the living room, he smiled a bit at the sight there. Anne had already set up the TV trays and, despite her complaining, set out a plate full of food for him. She'd turned it on to one of those generic cop shows that cable stations liked to play. What a funny kid. Most twelve-year-olds probably liked to watch… what? Disney Channel maybe? Cartoons? He wasn't sure, but he was pretty sure that most of them weren't into Law & Order and NCIS, at least not the girls. Then again, what did he know about middle schoolers?

Doug settled down on the couch next to his daughter, her bright hazel eyes glued to the screen in front of her as she munched on a mouthful of takeout. Snapping the wooden chopsticks apart (he was always afraid of breaking them when he did that), he watched her fondly. She'd pulled her shoulder-length hair into a ponytail and dressed in pajamas, a sure sign that she was done with the day and didn't plan on going anywhere besides bed. She looked so much like her mother… Sometimes Doug wondered if he'd accidentally just adopted a child, until he saw the faint, barely noticeable freckles spattering her cheeks and the long facial features. That was him. The dusty brown hair and small mouth, the lighter skin tone… That was all her mother. He'd always think that Anne was more beautiful than that witch, though. Neither of them missed her much, and they always dreaded Anne's annual required visit to see her. She tended to come back with failed bribery gifts and lots of stories to complain about.

It took Doug a minute before he realized that Anne was looking at him, brows furrowed and mouth pulled into a concerned frown. Had he been staring?

"Dad? Everything okay?" she asked anxiously. "Your food is going to get cold…"

"Hm? Oh, yeah, right. Sorry, I'm okay."

"You sure?"

"Yeah, hun, it's all good. Just thinking is all, but everything's right as rain."

Anne still eyed him skeptically but decided to drop it. He knew she was stubborn; she'd make sure to pester him about the scrapes and such later. Sometimes he thought she was too curious for her own good, like how she'd forced it out of him why he and Kate had split up.

"Do anything fun while I was gone?" he piped up at the next commercial break.

His daughter shrugged, absentmindedly stirring at her food with her chopsticks. "Homework… I didn't feel like staying up until midnight working on it all again…"

Doug wrinkled his nose. "Ew. I still think it's ridiculous that teachers think they have to assign so much of that. You're a kid! You should be having fun at this age, not slaving your life away on schoolwork. You're not even in high school yet, and they think they already have to suck away your life. Soon you'll start looking like the guys from Raiders of the Lost Ark…" Letting out a pitiful moan, he began convulsing, tossing the fortune cookies up in the air as he did so.

"Dad! Dad, you're going to knock over your food!" Anne giggled, trying to grab ahold of his arm and force him to be still.

"What, this?" He gestured to the plate. "There's hardly any even left!" With that, he proceeded to demonstrate, scarfing down what was left to half-hearted groans and exclamations of, "That's disgusting!" from his offspring.

Settling back with a satisfied expression, Doug pulled out his phone. "You know what we should do?"

"Take a picture?" Everyone knew that Doug had a multitude of pictures of his daughter (along with himself sometimes) that he would not hesitate to show off for anyone who asked. It just about drove his friends crazy.

He rolled his eyes with a grin. "Nooo… But we should do that too. I was actually thinking that we should go do something fun on Saturday. I've got the radio show in the morning, but I could come pick you up afterwards and we could do something fun. Maybe we could ask if Minkowski wants to tag along, if you want. We could go do whatever you want to."

She thought for a moment, chewing on her lip and then taking a slow sip of water. As she set her plastic cup down on the tray, her eyes lit up with excitement. Whipping her head around to look at him, big, hazel eyes wide, she asked, "Could we go to the planetarium?! We were going to go for my birthday, remember, but it was closed for renovations, and I really want to go!" Ahh, that was right. Doug still felt a little bad about that, but she had seemed to be at least mostly okay with going to a waterpark instead.

Mentally calculating the cost for a moment, he tried to determine if they could squeeze it into this month's budget. There was the car payment and rent to consider, and the fact that they both were going to need to get their hair cut soon…

 _Ah, screw it._ Anne deserved this. She'd been having a rough enough time, both in and out of school, and if there was one thing that Doug would never skimp on it was treating his daughter. If nothing else, he could see if Renee had heard of any odd jobs he could do to make a little extra cash. Nothing big that would take his time away from Anne and his actual job, just something to supplement this month and make things work out.

"Sure thing, kiddo. Get ready for Saturday; before you know it you'll be travelling to infinity and beyond!"


End file.
